USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 47
USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume III > Part 47
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By a former marriage Mr. Gill is the father of a son, James W. Gill, of San Bernardino, who was born November 11, 1895, and who is engaged in the lumber business in San Bernardino. He saw ac- tive service in France with the 145th Field Artillery.
The San Bernardino County Savings Bank of which J. B. Gill is president has H. E. Harris, first vice-president; A. M. Ham, 2nd
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vice-president ; J. H. Wilson, cashier; J. C. Ralph, Jr., assistant cashier. Directors : J. B. Gill, H. E. Harris, A. M. Ham, Victor C. Smith, T. A. Blakely, W. J. Curtis, Howard B. Smith, Mrs. E. D. Roberts, R. E. Roberts. On December 1, 1920, the capital was $150,- 000, surplus $150,000, undivided profits $42,000. The resources were $3,375,234.24.
The officers of the San Bernardino National Bank, are: J. B. Gill, president ; H. E. Harris, 1st vice-president; W. S. Boggs, 2nd vice-president ; R. E. Roberts, 3rd vice-president; J. S. Wood, cash- ier ; Herbert Weir and V. J. Micallef, assistant cashiers. Directors: J. B. Gill, H. B. Smith, J. W. Curtis, J. S. Wood, W. S. Boggs, H. E. Harris, Jennie E. Davis, R. E. Roberts, H. P. Stow. The capital was $100,000; surplus, $100,000; undivided profits, $235,086.95. The resources were $2,206,750.99. The combined capital and surplus of these two banks was over $800,000, the combined deposits $4,538,- 059.74 and the combined resources, $5,624,924.20.
MATTHEW MOSES MORE, business man of San Bernardino, is not only a Native Son of California but the son of a pioneer and the grandson of a pioneer. His father and grandfather went through the strenuous early days and did much to aid in early development. He has lived nearly all his life in his birth place and was educated here.
Mr. More was born in San Bernardino September 23, 1876, the son of Matthew and Abbie (West) More. His father came to California with his father and mother in the early fifties and located in San Bernardino. They crossed the plains in the prairie schooner drawn by oxen which was the best mode of conveyance at that time and they underwent all the trials and discomforts of the hardy pioneers of that age. Matthew More was a teamster by occupation and in following that line of work was killed accidentally in San Bernardino June 30, 1881. The mother was also a native of San Bernardino, born near City Creek. She is still living in the old home place. After the death of her husband she married again, Charles A. More, a business man of Colton.
Both the father and grandfather of Matthew Moses More lived and died on the old home place which is very dear to the family and which is still in their possession, and still a home for the mother.
Mr. and Mrs. Matthew More were the parents of four children, Minnie, wife of Z. T. Bell. secretary-treasurer of the Citrus Belt Gas Company of San Bernardino: Jim, a blacksmith of Colton City; the next a son is deceased; and Matthew Moses More. of this sketch.
Mr. More was educated in the public schools of San Bernardino and then took up the trade of horse-shoeing which he has since followed. He worked for others for a time and then in 1904 he opened a shop in Redlands which he conducted until 1914 when he returned to the city of his birth and opened his present shop which he has since placed on a verv secure basis.
Mr. More was united in wedlock in Pasadena in 1902 to Della Roach. a daughter of Tames I. Roach who came from Wisconsin in 1880 and located in San Bernardino County. Mrs. More has lived in San Bernardino County since she was four years old. except for a short residence in Pasadena. Mr. and Mrs. More have two children : Harold and Gladys. Mr. More is associated with a number of fraternal organizations being member of the Knights of Pythias. the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Fraternal Order of Eagles. Woodmen of the World and The Women of Woodcraft, and of Arrowhead Parlor No. 110, Native Sons of the Golden West. In politics he is independent,
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selecting candidates he considers best qualified regardless of party affili- ations.
MRS. MILDRED B. PIERCE-What is at once one of the most beautiful and most historic homesteads in San Bernardino County is the Crafts place, which on April 11, 1921, passed by purchase to Mrs. Mildred B. Pierce. Mrs. Pierce appreciates not only the wonderful charm of this home, but also its historic relationship with the community of Crafton.
The founder of the homestead and also the founder of the village of Crafton was M. H. Crafts, a New Englander, later a successful business man of Michigan who came to California in 1861 and bought four hundred and fifty acres at what is now Crafton, then known as the Altoona neighborhood. Later he increased his holdings to eighteen hundred acres, and in 1886, from a portion of this, he platted the town of Crafton and was busily engaged in carrying out plans for its develop- ment when he died in September, 1886. He set out the second orange grove in San Bernardino Valley, in 1870.
Mrs. Pierce, present owner of the homestead, is the widow of the late J. E. Pierce, of Massachusetts. Mrs. Pierce is of Southern ancestry. her father's father and mother and her mother's father and mother being Virginians. Much of her own life has been spent in the South.
Her only child and joint owner in the Crafton property is Colonel Junnius Pierce, a distinguished army officer who for fourteen years was in the service of the Regular Army. He was through the Great war, going overseas in October, 1917, and returning in December, 1920. He was adjutant to Major General John Biddle, chief of all the American Forces in England, and when General Biddle returned to the United States Colonel Pierce was appointed to perform his duties and later was made chief in England of the United States Liquidation Commis- sion. He was performing his duties with that commission until he resigned to associate himself with a British Syndicate, handling its affairs in America. Colonel Pierce was awarded the distinguished service medal by his own Government. Also by the order of King George he was made companion of the Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, the investiture taking place at Whitehall. Field Marshal Haig placing the decoration.
At San Francisco in 1913 Colonel Pierce married Barbara J. Small. daughter of the late Henry J. Small, who was a prominent official of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company for more than a quarter of a century. Colonel and Mrs. Pierce have a daughter. Mildred Barbara Pierce.
W. P. McINTOSH .- To be able to look back over years of substantial achievement and to realize in some measure how beneficial this achieve- ment has been to thousands of his fellow men, does not come to every man as he approaches the evening of life. but it is the happy lot of one of San Bernardino County's foremost residents. Hon. W. P. McIntosh. long prominent in politics, finance and land development. Mr. McIntosh has been a moving force and a personality in every phase of his long and useful career, from the time he proved to his first employer that his willing service was worth much more than his stipulated salary, through long years to the present, when thousands of acres of one time desert land yield enormously because of his far-sighted efforts that resulted in bringing life-giving water to the soil, and his generous but practical system of disposing of these lands.
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WV. P. McIntosh was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, February 27, 1849. His parents were P. D. and Anna McIntosh, the former of whom was born in Canada, of Scotch ancestry, and the latter of whom was born in Scotland. Of their large family of children W. P. was next to the youngest in order of birth. The father was a man of consequence, serving in a responsible public office for thirty-five years, retiring then against the wishes of those in higher authority. At the time of death he left an honorable name but no appreciable fortune to his family.
After W. P. McIntosh completed his schooling he began to plan for the future, and finally entered into an agreement with a local mer- chant to work for him as a clerk for three years, his salary for the first year to be $36, for the second year, $60, and $96 for the third year, board and clothing being included. That he proved unexpectedly useful was indicated at the end of his first quarter, when his employer, without solicitation, advanced his wage to the third year's rating, and later, when the youth was offered a much more advantageous position, was honest enough to urge its acceptance.
Mr. McIntosh continued in the mercantile line in Ontario until 1868, when he came to California, reaching San Francisco on the day before the earthquake in that year. He went into Napa County, and as his funds were low, his sole capital being but $5 at that time, he secured farm work at what is now Yountsville, and spent the winter there. In the spring of 1869 he went to Carson City, Nevada, with still less capital than before, but felt in no way discouraged, although he had neither friends- nor acquaintances in this section. He had, however, a strong physique and a readiness to accept any work at hand, and thus found a job and made friends as he helped to build the Virginia & Truskee Railroad. Later he went with the Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Company, which was constructing the Marlette Lake dam to furnish water for the celebrated Comstock Lode Mine. In the second year with this company he was made general manager, a position he continued to fill for years, resigning in 1878 in order to accept the position of superintendent of the Cortez Mines at Aurora, Nevada.
In September, 1883, Mr. McIntosh located at Los Angeles and embarked in the real estate business in the following year, in which line of effort he has continued ever since. Although he has been an important factor in developing Los Angeles from the hamlet he found into the present beautiful city, he has by no means confined his business operations to this special section. In 1886-7 he purchased wild, desert land in the Mentone section, where no development had been attempted because there was no water. Mr. McIntosh, however, was exercising his gift of foresight. His first step was to secure water, and he made the first filing on underflow water of Mill Creek, commencing development above the first dvke, or natural dam, by tunneling under the stream and in this way searching out the underflow. This water right is now owned by the Mentone Groves Company, a corporation composed of W. P. McIntosh and his three sons. These lands, the original purchase being 2300 acres, but now reduced by sales to 350 acres, have been purchased by homebuilders, actual settlers, Mr. McIntosh having put in motion an easy system of payment that has enabled honest, thrifty individuals to acquire desirable home sites. In selling these lands Mr. McIntosh gives the purchaser ten years in which to pay for them and charging only six and one-half percent interest.
In 1897-8 Mr. McIntosh was elected president of the Barton Land & Water Company, and in the space of two years, under the above
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terms, he had sold 1050 acres of the company's land in five and ten acre tracts. The invisible monument erected to him in the hearts of those who have benefited by the great opportunity offered them by Mr. Mcintosh is a noble one and will stand to his credit for generations to come. In the Los Angeles district he sub-divided various tracts and in one sub-division sold lots for $500 that within two years commanded $4000, while in Mentone orange growers have amassed fortunes on the land they bought.
Mr. Mcintosh married first Miss Kate D. Wade, who at death left three sons: Walter, George W. and Allen P., all of whom are now associated with their father in the realty business. The youngest son is a veteran of the World war and served in France as a member of the 61st Regiment, the famous "Grizzlies." The father of Mrs. McIntosh was an early pioneer in California, connected with many western en- terprises and at one time was mayor of Placerville. Mr. McIntosh married for his second wife Miss L. V. McGill, who was born and educated in Illinois and is a talented musician. Her father served in the war between the states and after his return to civil life he established the Farmers Bank of Hancock County, Illinois, which is still operating under the name he gave it. Mr. McIntosh was reared in the Presbyterian faith and has never wavered in his allegiance but has, nevertheless, been liberal to other church organizations also.
As has been stated, Mr. McIntosh entered the State of Nevada in poor financial circumstances, but the time came when he was a very prominent factor in the financial field. He assisted in the establishment of two savings banks and carried the first savings bank in the state through its first year as its president. His business stability secured him the confidence of the public, and during his period of residence at Carson City political favor came his way, resulting, despite his youth, in his defeating a well known politician, John C. McFarnahan, for the State Legislature, in which body he served with marked efficiency. He assisted also in early development at Redlands, but the only other political office that he has consented to accept was in the early days at Los Angeles, when he served as chairman of the building committee of the Board of Education at the time the first large school bond was floated. It was a position of much responsibility, and Mr. McIntosh's business judgment was invaluable. For more than a half century he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity, receiving his first degree as a charter member of Carson City Lodge No. 1, Free and Accepted Masons, forty-eight years ago, and now is a member of Southern Cali- fornia Lodge No. 278, Free and Accepted Masons, Los Angeles. Mr. McIntosh resides in one of the beautiful homes of Mentone, California.
R. EMERSON GILLILAND is one of the prominent men of Riverside who has earned the right to be numbered among the leading citrus fruit growers of the Southwest through his energy and efficiency. While he has acquired wealth in his industry, he has not neglected his duty as a good citizen, but has ever been generous in his dona- tions of time and capabilities to public service. It is to such men as he that Riverside owes its present supremacy in so many lines.
Born near New Marion, Indiana, June 11, 1868, Mr. Gilliland is a son of William F. Gilliland, a native of Cross Plains, Indiana, now deceased. He was a farmer and raiser of fine stock in Indiana. Dur- ing the war between the two sections of the country William F. Gilliland served as captain of Company E, Eighty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under General Logan and General McPherson,
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R. Emerson Gilliland
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She went through the W. R. C. and the Sons of Veterans Auxiliary, having been president twice of the latter. She has a brother, Harry A. Willoughby, living in Sandusky, Ohio, and a sister, Blanche F. Alspach, residing in Upper Sandusky, Wyandotte County, Ohio.
Mr. Gilliland is devoted to the city and county of Riverside, giv- ing his support to all matters of civic importance. He is an enthu- siastic booster for everything Californian, and Mrs. Gilliland is not far behind him in her interest in these movements. Both of them stand very high in popular esteem, and their hospitable home is often - times the scene of delightful gatherings of their many friends, whom they welcome in true Californian fashion.
MRS. SUSAN MEEKS-Chino is the home of one of the interesting pioneer women of San Bernardino County, Mrs. Susan Meeks, who has lived here sixty-three years, and has made a modest fortune and reared and provided for her children out of the fruits of strenuous labor and remarkably resolute struggle with the adversities and hard- ships of existence.
Mrs. Meeks was Miss Susan Bishop before her marriage and was born in Fillmore City, Utah, December 13, 1855. Her mother, Melinda (Case) Bishop, came to California a widow. The Cases were among the first white settlers in San Bernardino, her brothers, John, William and James Case, having preceded her. Mrs. Bishop had come from Salt Lake with her brother-in-law, Henry Dodson, a trader, and her intention was to make a visit in San Bernardino. She and her four children reached here June 15, 1858. She never went back to Utah, and subsequently was married to Edward Wilcox, who died as the result of injuries received from the kick of an animal. Mrs. Bishop died at the age of seventy-eight, in Orange County. Her children were Martha, Julia, Susan and Artemus, all living in California.
Susan Bishop was three and a half years of age when brought to California, and she grew up in the home of her mother, the other chil- dren being reared elsewhere. There was little opportunity for school- ing under such conditions, and Miss Bishop was earning her living and more when a mere girl. At the age of fifteen she became a general houseworker. At the age of seventeen her employment involved the care of children, all the housework, milking, churning and bread-making, all for a wage of five dollars a week.
At the age of twenty-one she became the wife of John H. Meeks, who was born in Indiana in January, 1835, and was a photographer by profession. His home for a number of years was near Westminster, California, in Orange County. Mr. and Mrs. Meeks became the parents of five children : John L., born in May, 1878; Laura A., born November 12, 1879, now Mrs. J. V. Dunn, of Chino, and the mother of eight children ; Charles Edward, born October 1, 1884; Fred, born December 20, 1887, who married Agnes Irving and has a son; and Florence, born March 11, 1891, wife of Ray Campbell and the mother of a daughter and son.
Mr. Meeks after his marriage continued his profession as a pho- tographer, removing to Chino in 1893, and died in 1901. He moved to Chino when the sugar factory was being opened. He had previ- ously taken up and proved a homestead in San Diego County. Mr. Meeks was an invalid the last ten years of his life, and in addition to looking after him Mrs. Meeks had the care and burden of her house- hold and her family, and at her husband's death she was practically penniless and her fortune has been accumulated by her thrift and good
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management in the last twenty years. She has accumulated city property at Chino and at the Beach. After the death of her husband she bought her present homestead of five acres on Philadelphia Avenue and the Pipe Line. She paid eight hundred dollars for this, and has since refused five thousand dollars. It is well set in deciduous fruits. Mrs. Meeks did a great deal of nursing in Chino as a means of paying out on her property. As her children grew older they helped her in accumulating her present ample holdings. She bought real estate at different times, paying only a part of the purchase price down and carrying the remainder on interest. For thirty-six years she has been a member of the Methodist Church, a strong prohibition worker, and she has faced and solved the problems of life with true fortitude and Christian spirit.
JOHN SAMUEL ARMSTRONG was born at Sheffield, Ontario, Canada, October 11, 1865, son of Joseph and Eliza Armstrong. His parents were natives of Ireland, of Scotch ancestry, and almost life-long resi- dents of Canada, and here he was reared and educated. On account of poor health he moved to Ontario, California, with his widowed mother and seven children, of which he is the eldest, reaching here March 3, 1889. The six other children are named Miss Etta M., Joseph W., Mrs. Arthur Yarnell of Los Angeles, Mrs. Margaret Herrett of Seattle, Washington, William and Mrs. Alice Hiller.
Mr. Armstrong soon after coming to California began in a small way to propagate and sell nursery stock. From this small beginning the business has grown until the nursery grounds now cover 350 acres, and the Armstrong Nurseries is now one of the best known nurseries in the state, doing mainly a mail order business but also enjoying a large transient trade from all over Southern California. Fruit trees, deciduous, citrus and tropical, are the main products of the nursery, particular attention being given to new fruits, among which are Avocados, new named varieties of Feijoas, Cherimoyas, Sapotas, Mangos, Jujube, Pistache, Loquats, etc. The ornamental department covers a wide field. Twenty thousand feet of glass are used in propagating beds.
Mr. Armstrong has formed a complete organization, employing trained, experienced men to conduct the various departments. Only the best known methods are used and the business is conducted with the firm purpose of holding the confidence of all patrons. An annual catalog is issued in large quantities, which is mailed to all parts of the world.
In Ontario Mr. Armstrong has been a member of the City Council for two terms, and is now president of the Elementary School Board. He is a director in the Ontario National Bank, a republican, a Mason and Shriner, a Methodist, and a member of the Red Hill Country Club.
At Clinton, Ontario, Canada, in September 1896, he married Miss Charlotte A. Cooper, a daughter of William Cooper, who came to Ontario, California, from Clinton, Ontario, Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have three children, all unmarried, named John Awdry, Arthur and Miss Olive.
WILLIAM G. WILLIAMS-The possibilities of achievement under dis- couraging and adverse circumstances are seldom better exemplified in an individual career than in that of William G. Williams, one of the prosperous orange growers in the Redlands District.
Mr. Williams was born at Newark, Ohio, November 15, 1860. His father, David Loyd Williams, was born in Wales in 1832 and on
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coming to America in 1854 settled at Newark, Ohio. Four years later he married Mary Griffith, also a native of Wales, who was brought to America by her parents when she was two years of age. She was one of ten children, two boys and eight girls, and by her marriage to David L. Williams she was the mother of ten children, seven boys and three girls. All these are still living except one daughter, and eight of them live within a radius of five miles around the old home of their parents in Putnam County, Ohio. David L. Williams established his home in that county in 1866, buying a large farm in Sugar Creek Township, and he owned that and other acreage and was one of the large propertied men of the county. He died in 1908.
William G. Williams was the oldest of the family and is the only one in California. He had a country school education. He remained at home, devoted to the labors of the farm, until he was twenty-nine.
In 1891 Mr. Williams married Miss Ruth E. James, who was born at Granville, Ohio, daughter of Walkin and Jane James, of Granville, natives of Wales. Mrs. Williams is an educated and cultured woman, finishing her schooling in one of Ohio's best colleges, located at Gran- ville. She has traveled abroad in Europe and elsewhere and has visited the old home of her parents in Wales.
Mr. Williams at the time of his marriage was not only without capital but was in poor health, due to malarial fever. He decided to come to California, and on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1892, he and Mrs. Williams reached San Bernardino. The following day they traveled into Redlands by way of the old Dummy line and here rented apartments for a time. Then occurred a relapse of the malaria, which finally concentrated in his left arm, necessitating four operations. At the third operation in a Los Angeles hospital the elbow joint was removed. There was a ten year struggle to regain his health, but he finally succeeded and now for a number of years has been able to do his full part in all departments of horticulture and ranching. Mr. Williams purchased his first lot on Cajon Street, between Home Place and Cyprus Avenue, on the east side of Cajon. Here be built a barn 14x18 feet, and lived in it two years. It was the first building in the entire block. They then built a good home on the front of the lot. This was their home until July 1, 1911, when Mr. Williams traded the town property for a ten-acre full bearing orange grove on East Luconia Avenue near Church Street. This excellent grove, located across from the University, has responded in abundant meas- ure to his careful thrift and steady management, and considering the obstaeles he has overcome few men could take more satisfaction out of prosperity than Mr. Williams, who accords liberal share of the credit for what he has accomplished to Mrs. Williams. Both have been faithful members of the Congregational Church since they were about fifteen or sixteen years of age. Mr. Williams is affiliated with Redlands' Lodge No. 300 of the Masonic Order.
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